


Cracked Mirrors

by mithrel



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Character Study, Gen, Introspection, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Prosthesis, Self-Hatred, Shiro (Voltron) Has PTSD - Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, Suicidal Thoughts
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-31
Updated: 2018-05-31
Packaged: 2019-05-16 07:55:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 336
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14807346
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mithrel/pseuds/mithrel
Summary: The Princess might have faith in him, but his reflection tells the truth.





	Cracked Mirrors

**Author's Note:**

> Rated teen just to be safe. Takes place in early to mid season 1. I think I got all the warnings, let me know if I missed any.

The reflection catches his eye as he leaves the shower and he glances at it before he thinks.

Rather than turning away, he forces himself to look at the wreck of what he once was.

His hair, gone prematurely white from whatever the Galra did to him. His torso, littered with scars from battles or torture he doesn’t remember.

And that… _damn_ monstrosity jutting from his shoulder. It’s more advanced than anything Earth can produce, undoubtedly, but it doesn’t feel like _his,_ despite being _wired into his brain._

He doesn’t even know how he got it, if his arm was irreparably damaged in a battle, or if the Galra just arbitrarily chopped off a healthy arm for…what? To make him a better fighter? To see how much he could take? He doesn’t know. All he has to go on is the fact that a lot of the Galra soldiers seem to have prosthetics.

He would go to Coran, beg him to take it off, except that probably might kill him ( _Good!_ ), because, again, wired into his brain, and the fact that being without an arm would make him worse than useless as a Paladin of Voltron.

The bitter laugh that forces its way out hurts. Paladin of Voltron, what a joke. Especially the _Black_ Paladin. The leader. The Shiro who was a leader, the hero, legend, the strong, optimistic pilot of the Kerberos mission, died a year ago.

He remembers Allura’s description of the Black Lion. _“It will take a pilot who is in control at all times, someone whose men will follow without hesitation.”_

How can he be in control when half of his life is missing, subsumed in the haze of torture that he can only be sickeningly grateful for even as he curses it? How can people follow him when he goes into flashbacks the moment he steps on board a Galra ship, triggered at the slightest hint of purple light?

Born leader. Maybe once, but he’s been born again since then.


End file.
